Elijah Menaḥem ben Abba Mari Ḥalfan was a kabbalist and humanist who lived in Venice. He worked as a physician and was educated in both philosophy and rabbinic literature. He was an associate of the Portuguese Jewish messianic pretender Solomon Molkho and is known for his openness to interacting with—and even teaching Hebrew to—Christian scholars.
At a time when the worship of the dead letter degenerated into idolatry; at a time when men passed their lives in counting the verses, the words and the letters of the Law, at a time when the official…
Avigdor Stematsky, a founder of the New Horizons art group, which, beginning in 1942, sought to break away from the artistic conventions established by the Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts, helped…
Joseph Avis, a Quaker carpenter, was commissioned to build the first synagogue in England following the readmission of Jews in 1656: the synagogue of London’s Spanish and Portuguese community, on…